NEW JUSTICE Prof. Alex Stein is congratulated by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked after being sworn in as an Israeli Supreme Court Justice on August 9, succeeding Justice Udi Shoham. Stein, 60, who was born in the Soviet Union and is a former faculty member at the Hebrew University, has lived in the US for the last 15 years, teaching at Brooklyn College in New York and the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. Israel's Supreme Court comprises 15 judges headed by Chief Justice Esther Hayut. GAZA DEAL After weeks of escalating violence between Israel and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, a long-term Gaza ceasefire was reportedly being negotiated in Cairo mediated by Egypt and the UN. The principle of the deal was “quiet for quiet,” which means that both sides will adhere to the truce unless the other side violates it. However, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, addressing the PLO Central Council in Ramallah on August 18, urged Palestinians to 'keep the ground aflame with popular resistance against Israel.' CORBYN UNDER FIRE British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was harshly criticized by Jewish leaders after the Daily Mail published a photograph of him at a wreath-laying ceremony in Tunis in 2014 for the Black September terrorists who carried out the 1972 Munich Massacre at the Olympic Games in which 11 members of the Israeli team were murdered. Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, demanded that Corbyn “apologize to the widows and to the victims of this terrible massacre.” BEINART DETAINED Israel apologized to prominent American Jewish journalist Peter Beinart, a frequent critic of Israel, after he was detained and questioned for an hour upon his arrival at Ben-Gurion International Airport on August 12 to attend a relative's bat mitzvah. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) issued an apology, calling it “an administrative mistake.” AVNERY DIES Uri Avnery, a veteran peace activist and journalist, died on August 20 at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital at the age of 94, after suffering a stroke. He was a strong advocate of a Palestinian state, was the first Israeli to meet PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1982, and founded the Gush Shalom peace movement in 1993. One of the Israeli Left's most prominent voices, the German-born Avnery also served as owner/editor of the magazine, HaOlam HaZeh (This World) and a member of Knesset . SODASTREAM DEAL PepsiCo will acquire Israeli carbonated water machine maker SodaStream for $3.2 billion, it was revealed on August 20. The Tel Aviv-based SodaStream in August reported its most successful quarter ever. The deal, due to be closed in early 2019, is aimed at adding healthier and more environmentally friendly products to Pepsi's portfolio. BGU APPOINTMENT Ben-Gurion University of the Negev on August 14 named Prof. Daniel Chamovitz to become its seventh president, replacing Rivka Carmi, who was featured as the cover story in the last issue of The Jerusalem Report. Chamovitz, a US-born biologist who is currently dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, will take up the post in January, 2019. GOLDEN GIRL Israel's Linoy Ashram, 19, won the all-around gold medal in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup Championship in Minsk on August 18. Ashram won Israel's first gold medal in the World Challenge Cup in Spain in May, and is the first athlete in the history of the event to win two all-around gold medals in one season. HISTORIC GOLD Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, 29, became the first Israeli athlete to win a gold in the 10,000 meters at the European Championships on August 8, in a time of 31:43.29. “I'm happy to hoist the Israeli flag,” said Chemtai, who came to Israel from her native Kenya in 2008 to work at the Kenyan consul's home, and received citizenship after marrying her current coach, Dan Salpeter, with whom she had a son, Roy, in 2014.
